Mega Plaza, 6 floors of awesomeness! Perhaps the largest toy mall in Bangkok?

Ok so whilst wandering around the vicinity around Wat Saket/Golden Mount, I found a mall named Mega Plaza. Six floors of AWESOMENESS ! ! !  Yes, I’m a kid and I ain’t afraid to show it, wiggle wiggle….uh ok never mind lol.  If you’re even remotely interested in anime, toys, collectibles and or camera gear you have to check this place out!  Plus it’s nearing Christmas time, so why not?

I would love to give you precise directions on how to get there but i can’t because i found the place by accident. I can tell you, though, that the closest train station is Sam Yot MRT (blue line) and that Google Maps sucked. It was actually much closer than the path it led me on (I had to find Sam Yot, MRT). Also if you’re into gold jewellery and firearms the vicinity is loaded with those types of shops but around 6:30 pm a lot were closing if not closed already.

The first four floors of Mega Plaza are filled with toy shops like baby toys, remote control stuff, lego, anime figurines (racks and racks full), Gundam models and mini drive able vehicles. I saw a figure that I really wanted to get (DBZ FiguArts Android 21)but I tried to bargain it down from $1800 Baht but was unsuccessful so I went to try to find a cheaper shop. I did find it in two other shops but one had it on sale for $2200 Baht and the other $2400 Baht so I tried to go back to the first shop but either they were closed or I couldn’t find it. Too bad for me.

There are a few console game shops which offer repair services as well. Comparing prices I found Nintendo Switch games to be slightly cheaper than in Singapore but you’ll have to shop around because prices differ, sometimes by a lot from shop to shop. I didn’t buy any because most of the games are from the European region and that eshop is the most expensive (that I’ve encountered so far from buying DLC’s). It looks to me that the Nintendo Switch games here are cheaper than the 3 shops I found at MBK mall. Anime figures are slightly cheaper too and I found an acrylic display box shop had really good prices but shipping is the deal breaker. If you’re into air guns (BB guns) I saw a couple of shops with a wide variety of guns, they were really quite impressive and realistic looking.

Half of the 5th floor is all camera shops unfortunately not all were open, some of the ones open at the time I was there were the ones offering repair services, used (older stuff) and vintage gear. Quite cool, I enjoy looking at vintage stuff!  If you’re looking for camera gear I highly recommend checking out Mega Plaza before you go to MBK mall (where there are a handful of shops as well, mostly all the new gear though). The other 1/2 of the floor is occupied by TCG shops (trading card games) like Magic The Gathering. I still play every now and then with my daughter and she was upset she didn’t get to check out Mega Plaza with me, haha.

On the top floor there is a food court and shops with the bigger models and diorama’s. Man oh man, were there some awesome looking diorama’s up there. I think there was a shop that takes custom orders meaning they custom make one to your design/liking. These shops makes the couple of shops in Singapore (that I’ve seen) look amateurish.

If I ever make it out to Bangkok again, I’d definitely make time to check out this mall again but this time earlier and with a list of stuff I wanna get this would be better than following my girls around Pratunam market looking at clothes. Oh, if you intend to go, keep in mind that shops start closing around 6 pm even though the mall doors says the mall is open until 7:30 pm so go early if you want the best selection.

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other (usually travel) bloopers, blunders and shenanigans but also photography related news/reviews and the occasional contest entry.

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details. Thanks in advance!

Comments & Critiques are always welcome, as are upvotes and resteems.

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Collectibles: Transformers Power of the Primes – Jazz

I love toys! There I said it! I’m not talking about big kid toys like electronics, and such. I’m talking about figurines of my favorite super heroes, Transformers, anime characters etc. Truth be told, I don’t hold a figure in each and make fight sounds as I bash them together, like I used to. These days, I just display them on shelves and every once in a while I’ll change their position or posture for a different look or I’ll use them as photo props. Some of my favorite toys are still in the original packaging! Anyways, I thought it’d be helpful for those of you who, like me, score a lot their loot online because it’s just way to hard or not possible to find them in stores anymore. Maybe extra images or my ‘take’ on the toy, will help you decide if it’s worth adding to your collection or not.

Hasbro’s has introduced this remake of the Autobot Jazz as a Deluxe Class figure in the Transformers – Combiner Wars toy line in 2015. He is now a part of a ‘combiner team’ consisting of Sunstreaker, Prowl, Iron Hide, Rodimus and Battle Core Optimus. Together they combine to form Optimus Maximus. Not to be confused with the red and blue Optimus Prime combiner that forms Ultra Prime with four other random bots, of which Jazz isn’t a part of. I didn’t even know there was a white colored Optimus until I went looking for a torso bot after seeing and impulse buying my two childhood favorite vehicular autobots, Jazz and Mirage. After months of looking/waiting for something “cool” enough to complete my version of Optimus Maximus, I settled on Moon Racer and Nova Star, my first female bots. Rodimus is a Legends class figure and is the optional chest piece of Optimus Maximus. You don’t have to get it I suppose, but I find the torso really, really ugly without something in the chest. If you don’t like a red chest piece, or can’t get Rodimus, you can use the Decepticon Blackjack as it’s the same toy mold as Rodimus. Other bots that can fit the torso, I’ve seen is MP Bumblebee, Legends Pipes (and the other variants).

Jazz’s white and blue color scheme looks good as does the Lemans style race car vehicular mode, I think the vehicle mode is still based off a Porsche model like the original Porsche 935 Turbo Jazz, but don’t quote me on that. The paint job on my figure is good, I haven’t spotted any issues. I really like the vehicle mode, very Porsche-esque. All for wheels touch the ground making it a very easy roll around your desk. Just thought I’d let you know, that I tested the rolling of the car, just for you. I definitely wasn’t racing it around my desk. If you flip the car over, Jazz’s face is, bam, right there. If this bothers you, you can rotate the head 180 degrees. There are two ports, one on either side of the car, just in front of the rear wheels. The port will fit both the weapon and the hand/foot attachment. The hand/foot attachment has a port that will fit the post just in front of the rear spoiler, which looks better than off to the side. Like most Deluxe Class vehicles, Jazz will fit inside Ultra Magnus’ trailer. This is where all the good things end with this figure…

Straight out of the packaging, you can feel that this figure is rather thin and light. You can’t really tell from looking at him in the packaging, well, I couldn’t lol. The panels feel really thin and brittle although nothing has broken yet. Jazz’s head is on a swivel and a hinge joint at the neck (to allow the head to move out of the way in limb modes). The arms are hinged and swivelled to allow for a shrugging and full arm rotation. A ball joint at the elbows finishes off arm articulation. The waist is on a swivel as are the thighs. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and pop off rather easily but easy to pop back on. Finishing off the leg are joints at the knees as well as the foot, specifically to allowing the toes to flip down to form the foot. Overall I’m quite pleased with the way this figure looks but maybe I’m biased because Jazz is one of my favorite characters and Porsche is my favorite car maker. I feel I should mention that all the joints and swivels range from the snug to loose so there’s a fair bit of flip floppery on my figure. If you’re looking to get this figure, the prices have dropped significantly, making it worth it but then again, I’m a bit biased.

SPECIAL NOTE: Not all deluxe class figures are the same height when in limb mode which makes a difference when used as legs, as in my case. Mirage and Jazz are different heights. You can check out my write up on Mirage here.

What makes the combiner teams special is their ‘ability’ to merge into one giant robot. This means that each member of the team will have a third transformation mode, one that’s specifically for the giant robot. The groups will typically consist of five members, one of them being larger than the others (Voyager Class figure) and will transform into the torso/head of the giant robot. The other four will transform into a limb, either an arm or a leg and you can place them however you like. NOTE: Some combiners, whose 3rd transformation is a limb, (when sold/purchased separately) only come with the hand attachment (Prime Armor) which means that the foot attachment will then be included with the torso figure. Since Combiners from the Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes toy lines are interchangeable and not all of them have the same hand/feet pieces you’ll have to really look at the included pieces if you’re planning on mixing and matching to create your own Combiner team. Battle Core Optimus DOES NOT come with any hand or feet attachments and 3 of the 4 limb bots that I bought had Prime Armor attachments so I had to look for solution for the feet attachments. What I found online was something called a Perfect Effect upgrade kit. They make a whole bunch of different kits for Combiners. Some are just hands and feet, others have weapons, chest plate add ons and limb widening add ons. Some of them look really awesome and I’m considering a couple of kits, however, they are quite pricey. While searching I also found some cheaper, different styled, different colored sets that were not from the Perfect Effect brand. I ordered the least expensive one I could find. It was a very pleasant surprise that both the hands and the feet can be transformed into weapons. The feet can transform into a really big double barreled blaster or separated into two blasters while the hands transform to something like a rifle. In foot mode, the tips of the barrels can be removed so that they don’t protrude from the back of the foot. I think the feet look better without the protruding barrels. The peg for the leg port is on a swivel for better posing stability but is a very tight fit.

Another nifty thing about combiner teams is that some Legends Class figures have an alternate mode for use in combiner teams, either as a chest plate or a weapon. For example, Optimus Maximus officially uses the Combiner Wars, Rodimus as a chest piece. You don’t have to use Rodimus because the Decepticon Blackjack is the same mold and used as Menasor’s chest piece. I’ve also seen Thundercracker, Wind Charger and Power Glide used as Optimus Maximus’ chest piece although I kept my Power Glide as a fan mode, chest piece (officailly he’s Superion’s weapon). As for my Optimus Maximus since I have to use Drag Strip I might as well try to find Blackjack too.

Pictured below are the Prime Armor and original feet attachments. The Prime Armor is a gimmick designed to induce more sales of toys, in my opinion. It’s an add on weapon/shield/engine part or whatever you make it out to be, and meant to accommodate a Prime Master. A Prime Master is a little figure that transforms into a ‘spark mode’ to fit into a compatible component, like the Prime Armor. This transformation is as easy as folding it in half to make it look like a cube. It is sold with an exo suit which just opens up to fit the Prime Master inside. This exo suit transforms into some kind of weapon (different Prime Masters have different exo suits). I included this info because some Combiner teams don’t have a large weapon for the merged figure so I got some of these Prime Masters to use in weapon mode. The foot attachment is from another figure that I wanted to show just as an example of roughly what some of the older hand/feet look like. The older ones are also dual purpose, they can be either hands or feet. The original one should look similar but have a Prime Master port, a swivel peg and cannot transform into a hand. Just make sure to look for a peg that sticks out from the top. That’s the peg that inserts into the leg.

Original Hand
(Jazz’s is black)
Original Foot

The moral of this story is, if you’re like me and collect toys based on how much you like the toy, set, theme or whichever and whatever, then you’re probably going to mix and match. If you do, please make sure you are set on parts as mentioned above and that the figure you plan on using for the torso is actually capable of that third transformation. For example, just because the figure is from the Combiner Wars series doesn’t mean it is a Combiner. I made that mistake…now I have two Ultra Magnus’! Lucky he’s one of my favorite characters, so I don’t really mind. If you have older Combiners using the older feet (like the one picture above), you can use the hands for feet then the Prime Armors for hands, that way you don’t have to buy an upgrade kit.

Official Build:

Autobots Merge into Optimus Maximus
Battle Core Optimus Prime Transforms into Torso
Sunstreaker Transforms into Right Arm
Mirage Transforms into Left Arm
Prowl Transforms into Right Leg
Ironhide Transforms into Left Leg
Rodimus Transforms into Chest Plate

My Build:

Autobots/Decepticons Merge into Optimus Maximus
Battle Core Optimus Transforms into Torso
Nova Star Transforms into Right Arm
Moon Racer Transforms into Left Arm
Mirage Transforms into Right Leg
Jazz Transforms into Left Leg
Rodimus Transforms into Chest Plate

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed making it. Have fun with your toys !!!

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other toys and collectibles posts but also my travel bloopers, blunders and shenanigans posts, photography related news/reviews posts and the occasional contest entry.

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details. Thanks in advance!

Comments & Critiques are always welcome, as are upvotes and resteems.

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

PS. If you want to check out my other ‘works’, you can find them here:

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Collectibles: Transformers Combiner Wars – Mirage

Combiner Wars, Autobot Mirage

I love toys! There I said it! I’m not talking about big kid toys like electronics, and such. I’m talking about figurines of my favorite super heroes, Transformers, anime characters etc. Truth be told, I don’t hold a figure in each and make fight sounds as I bash them together, like I used to. These days, I just display them on shelves and every once in a while I’ll change their position or posture for a different look or I’ll use them as photo props. Some of my favorite toys are still in the original packaging! Anyways, I thought it’d be helpful for those of you who, like me, score a lot their loot online because it’s just way to hard or not possible to find them in stores anymore. Maybe extra images or my ‘take’ on the toy, will help you decide if it’s worth adding to your collection or not.

Hasbro’s has introduced this remake of the Autobot Mirage as a Deluxe Class figure in the Transformers – Combiner Wars toy line in 2015. He is now a part of a ‘combiner team’ consisting of Sunstreaker, Prowl, Iron Hide, Rodimus and Battle Core Optimus. Together they combine to form Optimus Maximus. Not to be confused with the red and blue Optimus Prime combiner that forms Ultra Prime with four other random bots of which Mirage isn’t a part of. However, it is the Drag Strip that replaces Mirage, same toy mold, different character, just like the Optimus torso. I didn’t even know there was a white colored Optimus until I went looking for a torso bot after seeing and impulse buying my two childhood favorite vehicular autobots, Mirage and Jazz. After months of looking/waiting for something “cool” enough to complete my Optimus Maximus, I settled on Moon Racer and Nova Star, my first female bots. Rodimus is a Legends class figure and is the optional chest piece of Optimus Maximus. You don’t have to get it I suppose, but I find the torso really, really ugly without something in the chest. I think I might use the Decepticon Blackjack (same toy mold as Rodimus) for color balance because I may have to swap out Jazz for Drag Strip. More on the reason for that later, for now, here’s the details for Mirage.

Mirage’s white and blue color scheme looks good as does the F1 style race car vehicular mode. The paint job on my figure is good, I haven’t spotted any issues. I think vehicle mode looks best even though the front wheels are just slightly too high making them not touch the ground. Just thought I’d let you know, that I tested the rolling of the car, just for you. I definitely wasn’t racing it around on my desk. All four wheels do roll though. There are two ports, one on either side of the car, just behind the front wheel. The port will fit both the weapon and the hand/foot attachment. The hand/foot attachment has a port that will fit the post just above driver’s seat, which looks better than off to the side. My only other vehicular mode quibble is that the rear spoiler is too small. Anyways, on to robot mode. Mirage’s head is on a swivel and a hinge joint at the neck (to allow the head to move out of the way in limb modes). The arms are hinged and ball jointed to allow for a shrugging motion as well as for a full arm rotation. There is a bicep swivel and elbow hinge. The wrists are hinged for the sole purpose of hiding the fists when in vehicle and limb modes. The waist is on a swivel as are the thighs and the only other joint is at the knees. Overall I’m quite pleased with this figure maybe I’m biased because Mirage is one of my favorite characters. I feel I should mention that all the joints and swivels range from the snug to tight so no flip floppery on my figure. There is one thing to note that can be a deal breaker for some of us and that is the height of Mirage in leg mode. My mirage figure in leg mode is taller than my Jazz in leg mode. I couldn’t tell which one was the “off” one so I pulled a leg off Superion (Air Raid) and a leg off my version of Sky Reign (Blot) and it is Mirage that is taller (If you’re interested to see my version of Sky Reign it’s here Primal Reign). As you can imagine having one leg taller than the other makes standing straight not possible so you must pose it for it stay balanced and not fall over. An easy fix to this problem is to make Mirage an arm instead. A not so easy fix is to find a bot whose leg mode is the same height, such as the Decepticon, Drag Strip. Since they use the same toy mold they should be exactly the same height. Plus it’ll make the whole bot look a lot more symmetrical.

What makes the combiner teams special is their ‘ability’ to merge into one giant robot. This means that each member of the team will have a third transformation mode, one that’s specifically for the giant robot. The groups will typically consist of five members, one of them being larger than the others (Voyager Class figure) and will transform into the torso/head of the giant robot. The other four will transform into a limb, either an arm or a leg and you can place them however you like. NOTE: Some combiners, whose 3rd transformation is a limb, (when sold/purchased separately) only come with the hand attachment (Prime Armor) which means that the foot attachment will then be included with the torso figure. Since Combiners from the Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes toy lines are interchangeable and not all of them have the same hand/feet pieces you’ll have to really look at the included pieces if you’re planning on mixing and matching to create your own Combiner team. Battle Core Optimus DOES NOT come with any hand or feet attachments and 3 of the 4 limb bots that I bought had Prime Armor attachments so I had to look for solution for the feet attachments. What I found online was something called a Perfect Effect upgrade kit. They make a whole bunch of different kits for Combiners. Some are just hands and feet, others have weapons, chest plate add ons and limb widening add ons. Some of them look really awesome and I’m considering a couple of kits, however, they are quite pricey. While searching I also found some cheaper, different styled, different colored sets that were not from the Perfect Effect brand. I ordered the least expensive one I could find. It was a very pleasant surprise that both the hands and the feet can be transformed into weapons. The feet can transform into a really big double barreled blaster or separated into two blasters while the hands transform to something like a rifle. In foot mode, the tips of the barrels can be removed so that they don’t protrude from the back of the foot. I think the feet look better without the protruding barrels. The peg for the leg port is on a swivel for better posing stability but is a very tight fit.

Another nifty thing about combiner teams is that some Legends Class figures have an alternate mode for use in combiner teams, either as a chest plate or a weapon. For example, Optimus Maximus officially uses the Combiner Wars, Rodimus as a chest piece. You don’t have to use Rodimus because the Decepticon Blackjack is the same toy mold and used as Menasor’s chest piece. I’ve also seen Thundercracker, Wind Charger and Power Glide used as Optimus Maximus’ chest piece although I kept my Power Glide as a fan mode, chest piece for Superion (officailly he’s Superion’s weapon). As for my Optimus Maximus since I have to use Drag Strip I might as well try to find Blackjack too.

Pictured below is the hand/foot attachment for use when Mirage is in limb mode. This style of attachment can transform to be either a hand or a foot as opposed to the Prime Armor that can only be transformed into a hand. The purple attachment below is an example of a Prime Armor. Colors for these attachments varies making it another consideration when mixing and matching limb bots.

Original Hand/foot attachment

So, the moral of this story is, if you’re like me and collect toys based on how much you like the toy, set, theme or whichever and whatever, then you’re probably going to mix and match. If you do, please make sure you are set on parts as mentioned above AND that the figure you plan on using for the torso is actually capable of that third transformation. For example, just because the figure is from the Combiner Wars series doesn’t mean it is a Combiner. I made that mistake…now I have two Ultra Magnus’! Lucky he’s one of my favorite characters, so I don’t really mind. If you have older Combiners using the older feet (like the one picture above), you can use the hands for feet then the Prime Armors for hands, that way you don’t have to buy an upgrade kit.

Official Build:

Autobots Merge into Optimus Maximus
Battle Core Optimus Prime Transforms into Torso
Sunstreaker Transforms into Right Arm
Mirage Transforms into Left Arm
Prowl Transforms into Right Leg
Ironhide Transforms into Left Leg
Rodimus Transforms into Chest Plate

My Build:

Autobots/Decepticons Merge into Optimus Maximus
Battle Core Optimus Transforms into Torso
Nova Star Transforms into Right Arm
Moon Racer Transforms into Left Arm
Mirage Transforms into Right Leg
Jazz** Transforms into Left Leg
Rodimus** Transforms into Chest Plate

** I may swap Jazz for Drag Strip and Rodimus for Blackjack depending on if I can find/acquire them for reasonable prices.

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed making it. Have fun with your toys !!!

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other toys and collectibles posts but also my travel bloopers, blunders and shenanigans posts, photography related news/reviews posts and the occasional contest entry.

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details. Thanks in advance!

Comments & Critiques are always welcome, as are upvotes and resteems.

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

PS. If you want to check out my other ‘works’, you can find them here:

Portfolio
Blog
Fine Art

Collectibles: Transformers Combiner Wars – Sky Lynx

I love toys! There I said it! I’m not talking about big kid toys like electronics, and such. I’m talking about figurines of my favorite super heroes, Transformers, anime characters etc. Truth be told, I don’t hold a figure in each and make fight sounds as I bash them together, like I used to. These days, I just display them on shelves and every once in a while I’ll change their position or posture for a different look or I’ll use them as photo props. Some of my favorite toys are still in the original packaging! Anyways, I thought it’d be helpful for those of you who, like me, score a lot their loot online because it’s just way to hard or not possible to find them in stores anymore. Maybe extra  images or my ‘take’ on the toy, will help you decide if it’s worth adding to your collection or not.

Hasbro’s has introduced this remake of the Autobot Sky Lynx as a Voyager Class figure in the Transformers – Combiner Wars toy line in 2014. He is now a part of a ‘combiner team’ consisting of Hound, Wheeljack, Trailbreaker and Smokescreen. Together they combine to form Sky Reign. Some of the third party (ie not Hasbro) Transformers toy makers have packaged other limb bots in their sets and the comics use different limb bots for Sky Reign so I’m guessing there really isn’t an official version. Since Sky Lynx’s third transformation is the torso of Sky Reign, he is bigger than the Deluxe class limb bots. Officially, aside from torso mode, Sky Lynx has a vehicle space shuttle mode as well as a beast mode which is a four legged flying dinosaur, “bird mode”. Unofficially, there is a “fan” beast mode which is a winged lynx, which I think is pretty cool but you can check it out and decide for yourself. Sky Lynx is one of my favorite figures in my toy collections because all four modes looks good!

Sky Lynx’s red, white and blue color scheme is appealing to me and the gold colored trimmings, in my opinion, adds a touch of class. The paint job on my figure is good, I haven’t spotted any issues and I’m so glad that I don’t have to stick stickers on this version (unlike the original version). In space shuttle mode the two flaps on other side of the tail fin are hinged so you can adjust the angle of the flaps to your liking. The weapons can be mounted under the wings or on the side of undercarriage. In bird mode, the jaw is hinged and the range of motion is quite large. The head is hinged but the range of up/down position is quite small. The neck has two joints that allows for more up/down neck positions as well as a swivel to allows the head turn 360 degrees. The red neck joint on my figure is extremely hard to move, so much so I didn’t think it was able to! The wings have a recessed portion you can swing out for a larger wing span, hinges to facilitate a flapping motion and a swivel to allow the wing to flip upside down (for use in the other modes). The tail has two joints one near the base of the tail and one closer to the tip. Both joints allows for up/down movements but are rather limited. The legs have ratcheted joints at the hip and can spread wide. The knees are also ratcheted as well as swiveled. The feet are hinged with limited movements. All these hinges and swivels make for a very pose-able torso. Very nice, indeed!

Having raved so much about this toy, here comes the negatives and they could be deal breakers for some. Please keep in mind that I’m reporting these details from my experience with my copy of this figure. ALL of the joints are way too loose, except for the one neck joint mentioned above! The feet (blue claws) are so loose, they can’t hold really hold up the beast mode figure in most poses, even after tightening with a screwdriver. The ratchet joints are so soft it’s laughable, so soft that making Sky Reign stand up straight is a balancing act. Having bigger feet attachments helps a lot in that aspect. Let me try to paint a better picture for you, imagine holding Sky Reign by the torse and twisting your wrist. This will make Sky Reign’s legs swing back and forth like a stuffed toy, I kid you not! Fortunately for me, I leave my toys in a display and only need to “play” with them whenever I feel like the display needs a change, so I need deal with the soft joints that often. I just have to place him on the shelf that gets touched the least.

I find the abdomen area a bit too skinny for my liking so I wedged a  Prime Armor on either side. You can see how it looks in the last photo below. I like the look better but they aren’t that secure, if you move the figure around to vigorously, the Prime Armors will fall out.

What makes the combiner teams special is their ‘ability’ to merge into one giant robot. This means that each member of the team will have a third transformation mode, one that’s specifically for the giant robot. The groups will typically consist of five members, one of them being larger than the others (Voyager Class figure) and will transform into the torso/head of the giant robot. The other four will transform into a limb, either an arm or a leg and you can place them however you like. NOTE: Some combiners, whose 3rd transformation is a limb, (when sold/purchased separately) only come with the hand attachment (Prime Armor) which means that the foot attachment will then be included with the torso figure. Since Combiners from the Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes toy lines are interchangeable and not all of them have the same hand/feet pieces you’ll have to really look at the included pieces if you’re planning on mixing and matching to create your own Combiner team. Sky Lynx DOES NOT come with any hand or feet attachments! This is what caused my dilemma and resulted in my “Collectibles” series of posts. Here’s the story:

A year or so ago I caught a glimpse of Sky lynx in a gift shop within the Hong Kong Airport. I walked straight in and bought it and while waiting to board my flight I looked it over and I realized it was a combiner! Bonus! The only issue now is who to use for the limbs, since I wanted an all dino or monster theme. Couldn’t think of any at the time so I put it off for awhile. Many months later I saw a Terrorcon Combiner in a toy store in Singapore and bing, that was it. I recently acquired all 4 Terrorcons to complete my version of Sky Reign (I think I’ll have to rename my version, though). It was only after opening all the figures that I realized that Sky Lynx did not come with feet!!! So a few swear words later, I was back online looking for solutions since the feet are packaged with Hun-Gurrr (the torso). I had decided long ago not to get Hun-Gurrr because I’m not a big fan of pink robots, the monster mode looks weird to me and one 2 headed dragon/monster on the team is enough. What I found online was something called a Perfect Effect upgrade kit. They make a whole bunch of different kits for Combiners. Some are just hands and feet, others have weapons, chest plate add ons and limb widening add ons. Some of them look really awesome and I’m considering a couple of kits, however, they are quite pricey. While searching I also found some cheaper, different styled, different colored sets that were not from the Perfect Effect brand. I ordered the least expensive one I could find. It was a very pleasant surprise that both the hands and the feet can be transformed into weapons. The feet can transform into a really big double barreled blaster or separated into two blasters while the hands transform to something like a rifle. In foot mode, the tips of the barrels can be removed so that they don’t protrude from the back of the foot. I think the feet look better without the protruding barrels. The peg for the leg is on a swivel for better posing stability.

Pictured below is an original hand/foot attachment for Combiner Wars combiners. This one part can be transformed to either a hand or a foot. However, the pictured foot attachment is from Mirage, the arm of Optimus Maximus. Even though this particular attachment is not for Sky Reign combiners (theirs is black), it serves as an example of roughly what the hand/feet part looks like. Be mindful when mixing and matching as the limb bots from the Power of the Primes toy line come with either a hand attachment (Prime Armor) or a foot attachment.
The moral of this story is, if you’re like me and collect toys based on how much you like the toy, set, theme or whichever and whatever, then you’re probably going to mix and match. If you do, please make sure you are set on parts as mentioned above and that the figure you plan on using for the torso is actually capable of that third transformation. For example, just because the figure is from the Combiner Wars series doesn’t mean it is a Combiner. I made that mistake…now I have two Ultra Magnus’! Lucky he’s one of my favorite characters, so I don’t really mind. If you have older Combiners using the older feet (like the one picture above), you can use the hands for feet then the Prime Armors for hands, that way you don’t have to buy an upgrade kit.

My Build:

“Primal Reign” Merge into Sky Reign
Sky Lynx Transforms into Torso
Rippersnapper Transforms into Right Arm
Cutthroat Transforms into Left Arm
Sinnertwin Transforms into Right Leg
Blot Transforms into Left Leg

I call him “Primal Reign.”

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enoyed making it. Have fun with your toys !!!

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other toys and collectibles posts but also my travel bloopers, blunders and shenanigans posts, photography related news/reviews posts and the occasional contest entry.

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details. Thanks in advance!

Comments & Critiques are always welcome, as are upvotes and resteems.

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

PS. If you want to check out my other ‘works’, you can find them here:

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Collectibles: Transformers POTP – Blot

I love toys! There I said it! I’m not talking about big kid toys like electronics, and such. I’m talking about figurines of my favorite super heroes, Transformers, anime characters etc. Truth be told, I don’t hold a figure in each and make fight sounds as I bash them together, like I used to. These days, I just display them on shelves and every once in a while I’ll change their position or posture for a different look or I’ll use them as photo props. Some of my favorite toys are still in the original packaging! Anyways, I thought it’d be helpful for those of you who, like me, score a lot their loot online because it’s just way to hard or not possible to find them in stores anymore. Maybe extra extras image or my ‘take’ on the toy, will help you decide if it’s worth adding to your collection or not.

Hasbro’s has introduced this remake of the Decepticon Blot as a Deluxe Class figure in the Transformers – Power of the Primes toy line in 2018. He is part of the ‘combiner team’ known as the Terrorcons and transforms into a beast that kind of resembles an orc/ogre/troll don’t really sure what it is but it looks really cool, I think. This five and a half inch figure comes with a collectible card, a blaster, and his Prime Armor which transforms into the hand of Abominus. What makes the combiner teams special is their ‘ability’ to merge into one giant robot. This means that each member of the team will have a third transformation mode, one that’s specifically for the giant robot. The groups will typically consist of five members, one of them being larger than the others (Voyager Class figure) and will transform into the torso/head of the giant robot. The other four will transform into a limb, either an arm or a leg and you can place them however you like. NOTE: Some combiners, whose 3rd transformation is a limb, (when sold/purchased separately) only come with the hand attachment (Prime Armor) which means that the foot attachment will then be included with the torso figure. Since Combiners from the Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes toy lines are interchangeable and not all of them have the same hand/feet pieces you’ll have to really look at the included pieces if you’re planning on mixing and matching to create your own Combiner team. This is what caused my dilemma and resulted in my “Collectibles” series of posts. More info below.

Blot’s light purple and dark blue/black color scheme makes him look powerful in my opinion, matches well with his beast form. I have a couple of issues on my bot in regards to the paint job. Firstly, the red paint on the two red chest cannons got onto some of the surrounding silver parts. You’ll really have to look for it to see them, so it won’t bother me at all. Secondly, and I don’t really know if it’s a paint defect or not, is the face of the bot. You can decide for yourself it’s it a paint defect/error. You can see it in the first image, it just looks ‘off’ to me and I’m inclined to think it’s a paint error. Again I’m likely going to keep him in limb mode so “out of sight, out of mind” for me. The faux rub sticker of the Decepticon emblem is straight and centered on top of the beast head. In beast mode, the head cannot move at all nor can the jaw. The blaster cannon can be pegged on a swiveled lever just behind the head. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders and elbows, so no bicep swivel. The hands are swiveled at the wrists to reveal the third claw in beast mode while the other two claws are permanently extended from the forearm. The beast legs are swiveled at the hip which allows for the leg to rotate 360 and has a ratchet joint allowing the legs to spread wide. This is the only Terrorcon that can do this. The only other joint is at the ankle and it is also ratcheted. In robot mode, the head can turn 360 and tilt slightly up and down. There is a chest panel that you can flip down to reveal a port in which you can plug the Prime Armor, which I think looks ugly. Like all the other Terrorcons, in robot mode, the hips are on a 360 degree swivel. There is a thigh swivel and a knee hinge on the legs. The thing I find most disturbing is that the joints are not uniformly tight. For example one thigh swivel is tighter than the other or one beast mode leg is so loose that it won’t stay in place while the other is snug. Or some parts tab in securely while others don’t. Maybe it’s my copy, I don’t know, but since I won’t be moving it around too much or too often, it’ll be ok. Also, it doesn’t take much force to pop a part off some ball joints but it’s easy to pop back in. For example, the Prime Armor piece transforms into the hand by flipping out the fingers and folding down the thumbs (the two pointy parts with the holes in it). It kind of looks stupid to me, having a hand with a thumb on the top and bottom, so I pulled off the bottom thumb. More of my ‘mods’ below.

Official Build:

Terrorcons Merge into Abominus
Hun-gurrr Transforms into Torso
Blot Transforms into Right Arm
Blot Transforms into Left Arm
Blot Transforms into Right Leg
Blot Transforms into Left Leg

A year or so ago I caught a glimpse of Sky lynx in a gift shop within the Hong Kong Airport. I walked straight in and bought it and while waiting to board my flight I looked it over and I realized it was a combiner! Bonus! The only issue now is who to use for the limbs, since I wanted an all dino or monster theme. Couldn’t think of any at the time so I put it off for awhile. Many months later I saw a Terrorcon Combiner in a toy store in Singapore and bing, that was it. I recently acquired all 4 Terrorcons to complete my version of Abominus (I think I’ll have to rename my version, though). It was only after opening all the figures that I realized that Sky Lynx did not come with feet!!! So a few swear words later, I was back online looking for solutions since the feet are packaged with Hun-Gurrr (the torso). I had decided long ago not to get Hun-Gurrr because I’m not a big fan of pink robots, the monster mode looks weird to me and one 2 headed dragon/monster on the team is enough. What I found online was something called a Perfect Effect upgrade kit. They make a whole bunch of different kits for Combiners. Some are just hands and feet, others have weapons, chest plate add ons and limb widening add ons. Some of them look really awesome and I’m considering a couple of kits, however, they are quite pricey. While searching I also found some cheaper, different styled, different colored sets that were not from the Perfect Effect brand. I ordered the least expensive one I could find. It was a very pleasant surprise that both the hands and the feet can be transformed into weapons. The feet can transform into a really big double barreled blaster or separated into two blasters while the hands transform to something like a rifle. In foot mode, the tips of the barrels can be removed so that they don’t protrude from the back of the foot. I think the feet look better without the protruding barrels. The peg for the leg is on a swivel for better posing stability.

Pictured below are the Prime Armor and original feet attachments. The Prime Armor is a gimmick designed to induce more sales of toys, in my opinion. It’s an add on weapon/shield/engine part or whatever you make it out to be, and meant to accommodate a Prime Master. A Prime Master is a little figure that transforms into a ‘spark mode’ to fit into a compatible component, like the Prime Armor. This transformation is as easy as folding it in half to make it look like a cube. It is sold with an exo suit which just opens up to fit the Prime Master inside. This exo suit transforms into some kind of weapon (different Prime Masters have different exo suits). I included this info because some Combiner teams don’t have a large weapon for the merged figure so I got some of these Prime Masters to use in weapon mode.The foot attachment is from another figure that I wanted to show just as an example of roughly what some of the older hand/feet look like. The older ones are also dual purpose, they can be either hands or feet. The original one should look similar but have a Prime Master port, a swivel peg and cannot transform into a hand. Just make sure to look for a peg that sticks out from the top. That’s the peg that inserts into the leg.

Original Hand Original Foot

The moral of this story is, if you’re like me and collect toys based on how much you like the toy, set, theme or whichever and whatever, then you’re probably going to mix and match. If you do, please make sure you are set on parts (usually missing feet) as mentioned above and that the figure you plan on using for the torso is actually capable of that third transformation. For example, just because the figure is from the Combiner Wars series doesn’t mean it is a Combiner. I made that mistake…now I have two Ultra Magnus’! Lucky he’s one of my favorite characters, so I don’t really mind. If you have older Combiners using the older feet (like the one picture above), you can use the hands for feet then the Prime Armors for hands, that way you don’t have to buy an upgrade kit.

In case you’re wondering what my version looks like here’s a preview (I left the extra thumb on the left hand so you can see the difference between pulling the bottom one off or not):

I’ll call him “Primal Reign.”
Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enoyed making it. Have fun with your toys !!!

Consider following me for updates to find not only my other toys and collectibles posts but also my travel bloopers, blunders and shenanigans posts, photography related news/reviews posts and the occasional contest entry.

All the photos (unless otherwise noted in the post) were taken by me and are available for sale. If you’re interested in buying an image or three, 😃 please don’t hesitate to contact me for more details. Thanks in advance!

Comments & Critiques are always welcome, as are upvotes and resteems.

Thanks for viewing and best wishes!

PS. If you want to check out my other ‘works’, you can find them here:

Portfolio
Blog
Fine Art